Can you get room upgrades if you do online check in?

[GoldenRetrieverWrangler]

Just wondering how this works at WDW? Normally I check in at other hotels in person on the off chance that they want to give us an upgrade (obviously we don’t expect this at all, but we have been lucky in the past!). Should I do the same at WDW or do we have to do the online check in before we arrive? We won’t be arriving until 8pm so don’t want to have any issues! Thanks

 

[thanxfornoticin]

For the majority of check-ins, there's very little chance of an upgrade. I expect to have any chance at all, it would have to be a very unique situation and you would want to check at the front desk. I also expect if you're arriving at 8PM, you'll have no shot. If it were us and we were checking in that late, I'd definitely do online check-in, so that I was notified when the room is actually ready - would allow us to go right to the room when we arrived.

 

[Narcoossee11]

Too late for a upgrade since arriving so late.
Normally, upgrades are face to face. In future you would go to FD to ask what is available.

 

[GoldenRetrieverWrangler]

Too late for a upgrade since arriving so late.
Normally, upgrades are face to face. In future you would go to FD to ask what is available.

Ah okay! At other hotels I’ve been at arriving later was an advantage actually because they knew no one would be filling the room haha interesting to know Disney is different

 

[T.G.I.Friday]

I’d say that it depends on how much you want to gamble.

In my opinion, if you are going for a night or two and hoping to get a water view and a not a standard view at the Boardwalk, then sure, wait and try your luck at check in and don’t do it online.

But if you are going for longer or want a bigger upgrade (standard view to club level suite, for example), then I’d think it’s way less likely and would think doing the online check in would be easier so you can go right to your room since you won’t be arriving until 8.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I'm not sure there's any real disadvantage to checking in online, AND also possibly going to the front desk to check for an upgrade. The rooms (so I have been told) are assigned before the day of check-in. Checking in online just gives a guest access to the room directly, when it's ready. The front desk sees the same info. I don't think doing both reduces the chances of an upgrade - it's only going to happen if something is available.

 

[Little E]

FWIW, my TA has an opinion about online check in, in general. If you are flying, she says not to hit the online check in button until you are at your gate and about to board the plane. She says that if for any reason it looks like your flight might be delayed or there is a snafu in your traveling and you might not arrive at all the night of your check in, Disney has more flexibility to extend "grace" if you haven't started the check in process online.

I know this is not directly related to getting an upgrade, but my TA hasn't steered us wrong yet in any of our trips. Just thought I would share.

OP, have a magical trip!!

 

[DizneyFamof4]

I can only give you my actual personal experience, from our many trips. Background: we always drive and almost always arrive real late, midnight-2AM, so to me 8PM is early. LOL We normally check-in at the lobby, because we have had many upgrades that happened at the counter while having a conversation with the CM. I'm just talking about your basic upgrade, standard to garden or water view or a better location, this includes being upgraded at AKL twice from standard to Savannah view. I will say most of these have come at CSR, both PO resorts and POP, and as you can see from my signature, they are the resorts we have stayed at the most. We would also add room requests to our reservation as well as fax a nicely worded room request 7 days before check-in day. I will say that l noticed that the late night CM's actually seem more engaging when we are checking in When our DDs were toddlers, the CMs have gave them stickers, coloring pages and crayons, balloons etc. and one time a couple of Tinker Bell pin sets

So it really does not matter what time you arrive. Also, if you really want a better room, then yes definitely reserve it. We are totally happy with whatever room category we reserved, but I have absolutely no problem asking the CM if there is a room with a better view/location because the worst they can do is say no. Our next trip in March is for our HS graduating DD, we are staying at POP and she wanted to stay in a certain area, so for the 1st time ever, I reserved a "Preferred" room because that is what we want

 

[kanerf]

Been going for about 20 years now regularly and have never received an upgrade.

 

[lanejudy]

You have 2 questions going here...

1) is it possible to get a room upgrade if you do online check-in? Yes it is. It may be automatic, which occurs because WDW needed to put you in a different category room. Or you can stop by the front desk and ask (be prepared to pay if you ask for an upgrade).

2) how likely is a room upgrade if arriving at 8pm? Possible but highly unlikely. WDW resorts operate on a very high occupancy rate most nights, unlike most average hotels. By that time of evening, most wiggle-room (if there was any) has been given out to other guests who arrived earlier in the day and requested an upgrade. That said, you can absolutely go to the front desk and ask, something might be available.

 

[Disneyfan628]

I don’t think there’s really anyway that makes it more or less likely to get an upgrade. We got an “upgrade” once when they were building the bungalows at the Polynesian. We had booked garden view club level and they gave us an upgrade to a first floor lagoon view room that was as far from the lounge as you can get and the “view” was of construction. I should have declined it or told them I changed my mind but we just dealt with it.

I think when you get an upgrade it’s typically due to convenience for Disney. In our case garden view may have been overbooked or people had asked to be moved due to the construction. A friend of ours was moved from Saratoga to riviera recently due to the hotel being full.

 

[KrazeeK120]

But if you are going for longer or want a bigger upgrade (standard view to club level suite, for example)

I’ve gotten that exact upgrade before on a 5 night stay. It was our first time staying CL…I didn’t even know it existed until then.

We’ve now stayed CL 2 more times and have another CL stay booked for this summer.

Money sucking geniuses they are down there at Disney.

OP - I’m not sure it makes any kind of difference how you check in. My upgrade occurred in 2014 and I don’t remember if online check in was a thing or not but the upgrade occurred before we got to the resort because there was a CL CM waiting for us when we got there. I was really confused as to what was going on! I think you may have a shot at a view upgrade at the desk but that would probably be about it.

 

[meremac]

FWIW, my TA has an opinion about online check in, in general. If you are flying, she says not to hit the online check in button until you are at your gate and about to board the plane. She says that if for any reason it looks like your flight might be delayed or there is a snafu in your traveling and you might not arrive at all the night of your check in, Disney has more flexibility to extend "grace" if you haven't started the check in process online.

I know this is not directly related to getting an upgrade, but my TA hasn't steered us wrong yet in any of our trips. Just thought I would share.

OP, have a magical trip!!

I can tell you with confidence that this isn't true. The online check-in platform has nothing to do with reservations, and checking in late like this means that you won't get any special requests that you have the option to note during the check-in process (of course, these requests aren't guaranteed, but Disney does make every effort to accommodate them). Even if you've checked in online, your TA can call on your behalf if you'll be late. I've done it many times.

 

[meremac]

The vast majority of my clients complete online check-in, and they still do sometimes get upgrades. In fact, I just recently had a client get a text that her room was ready on her way to WDW from the airport: it was then that she discovered that she was no longer in a Garden Wing Room at the Contemporary...she was in a Theme Park View SUITE in the Main Tower! I've also had plenty of people who'd checked in online get less crazy upgrades over the years: Preferred Rooms instead of Standard, etc.

 

[Mle8308]

Generally, the "bigger" upgrades occur when there is a problem with a room and they have no other options. And most frequently, the shorter reservations (# of nights) are going to be given the upgrades. So for a longer stay, it's less likely. And as others have said, the upgrade is usually to a different view and depending on what you prefer, it may not be an upgrade. Sometimes the lake view rooms are the furthest from the main area and transportation and pool view can be noisy. If you want a specific room type, book that type as you probably won't get upgraded. You can ask at check in, just be prepared to pay for it. It may be complimentary, but don't expect it. And as an FYI, hotels do normally oversell their lowest category of rooms as time passes if reservations are low, it encourages people to book. It is much easier to upgrade a room than to downgrade.

 

[T.G.I.Friday]

I’ve gotten that exact upgrade before on a 5 night stay. It was our first time staying CL…I didn’t even know it existed until then.

We’ve now stayed CL 2 more times and have another CL stay booked for this summer.

Money sucking geniuses they are down there at Disney.

OP - I’m not sure it makes any kind of difference how you check in. My upgrade occurred in 2014 and I don’t remember if online check in was a thing or not but the upgrade occurred before we got to the resort because there was a CL CM waiting for us when we got there. I was really confused as to what was going on! I think you may have a shot at a view upgrade at the desk but that would probably be about it.

That’s an awesome upgrade! Good for you!

But you were already booked for CL. I meant more along the lines that if you had a regular room booked, it’s going to be incredibly rare to get moved from a standard room to the penthouse.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

The discussion here about online check-in experiences and theories is quite interesting. We have a trip next month and I completed my online check-in months ago! I don't think that impacts my ability for a 'magical' upgrade and getting a better room. But since we're not in the room where they're actually putting names to the rooms, I guess we won't know for certain!

 

[Eeyore's the Best]

We did not do online check in at our recent stay, we had booked CL at the Grand Floridian and got upgraded to the Walt Disney Suite. First time we had ever been upgraded for anything! It was so awesome but I also believe pretty random. We did not request an upgrade, we must have somehow been pre-selected.

 

[GoldenRetrieverWrangler]

FWIW, my TA has an opinion about online check in, in general. If you are flying, she says not to hit the online check in button until you are at your gate and about to board the plane. She says that if for any reason it looks like your flight might be delayed or there is a snafu in your traveling and you might not arrive at all the night of your check in, Disney has more flexibility to extend "grace" if you haven't started the check in process online.

I know this is not directly related to getting an upgrade, but my TA hasn't steered us wrong yet in any of our trips. Just thought I would share.

OP, have a magical trip!!

This is really great info to know! Thank you so much!

 

[Dug720]

(be prepared to pay if you ask for an upgrade).

ABSOLUTELY this. If you're asking, you should basically lead with something like "Are there any of [insert room type] available and how much would it be to upgrade to that?"

That said, while it's not happened to me, I've got some friends who HAD done online check in for an outer building garden view room, then on their arrival day they were checking the app to see if their number had popped up yet and it had main building club level as their room type.

So basically pixie dusting is random and based on the needs of the resort. If you're asking, expect to be charged (and I don't mean bribing the CM by charged).